Welcome to NASIOC - The world's largest online community for Subaru enthusiasts!

Welcome to the NASIOC.com Subaru forum.

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, free of charge, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Weekend arrests on the Sea-to-Sky Highway marked the opening of the street racing season, according to a West Vancouver police officer and an ICBC driving psychologist.

At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, north of Horseshoe Bay, an officer spotted five cars speeding around one of the highway's dangerous curves, travelling in a pack, said Sergeant Bob Fontaine of the West Vancouver Police Department.

An officer at the side of the road pulled a quick U-turn, turned on his siren and flashed his lights while following the cars up the highway, toward Squamish. Three of the cars slowed to legal speed, blocking the officer from stopping the first two cars, which ducked into a darkened dead-end road, Fontaine said.

After he managed to pass the three cars, the officer blocked the side road with his cruiser, trapped and ticketed the first two drivers, and impounded their cars, while the other three escaped along the highway. Police would not reveal the identities of the two drivers ticketed.

Although there was no crash and the drivers were not doing more than 120 km/h when the officer spotted them, the incident is significant because it marks the first of what is likely to be a long string of races on the highway from now until the fall, Fontaine said.

"This is quite common. They see how fast they can take that highway and the curves in it," he said.

"Motorcycles are really bad in the summertime. They meet at a restaurant and decide 'we're going for a run,' and we've had a couple fatalities that way.

"These cars were probably doing the same thing."

John Vavrik, an ICBC psychologist who has interviewed 15 street racers about their behaviour, said Saturday's race was likely a "hat race," in which drivers meet, each put money into a hat and drive to a specific destination as fast as they can. The winner takes the pot.

"The idea is that you basically drive as fast as you can regardless of the traffic and you do it on city streets. It doesn't matter where you do it," Vavrik said.

Several downtown nightclubs are known meeting places for hat racers, but most of them usually race to Richmond, Vavrik said. Racing to Squamish or Whistler is not unheard of, but Vavrik said it is not a route he has heard mentioned during his interviews with street racers.

"It may be some new emerging thing we haven't yet witnessed," he said.

Regardless of the route, the spring and summer months bring out more street racers than other seasons, mostly because of the improved driving conditions and the "party mood" created by the warmer weather and longer days, Vavrik said.

"Generally, all high-risk driving that includes street racing is certainly more prevalent in the spring and summer," he said.

"We have some of the most serious crashes involving excessive speeds and racing that happen in sunny conditions, dry pavement and ideal driving conditions.

"Because the weather's good, [drivers] feel like they can push the limit more. They have this false sense of confidence."

The two drivers caught Saturday were given $460 fines, had their licences suspended for 15 days, and had their cars impounded for 48 hours. Their cases have been forwarded to the superintendent of motor vehicles, where they will be reviewed and a decision will likely be made to suspend the drivers' licences for one to three years, Fontaine said.

One of the drivers was a 20-year-old Vancouver man, driving a 2000 Honda Civic, while the other was a 21-year-old Coquitlam woman who was driving a 2000 Acura.

It's more how they drove than just the speed... in fact, if they were driving like this at 1Kmh over the limit, this could be considered street racing - which is in a sense a bit better than the bogus definition they had in mind. Whatever the hell it is, as long I don't get pulled over for allegedly racing someone (which the officers are very happy to lay that charge on you when there are more than one car)...

At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, north of Horseshoe Bay, an officer spotted five cars speeding around one of the highway's dangerous curves, travelling in a pack, said Sergeant Bob Fontaine of the West Vancouver Police Department.

were they really racing?
so if a bunch of us i-club guys decided drive up to whistler, doing say 20k over the speed limit, it would be street racing

Especially a bunch of modified cars are heading uphill together! They assume that u're racing against each other right away.

"Hat race", this term is funny. Seems like ppl rarely hear about ppl speed on Sea to Sky quite often. Anyway I do really hope these guys/girls had a lesson in this case. I'd spend that $ on mods, tires and track seat time rather than paying stoopid speeding ticket/points.

Fine paid, most of the problem solved. That's something that money can STILL BUY. But u can't buy your arms, legs or even ur life back with $.

Originally posted by sporksport wow, didn't know driving on sea-sky highway less than 120 is considering street-racing

A bunch of us had a similar situation driving from Vancouver to Kelowna last summer, but only got a warning rather than tickets. Our speed was probably 20km/h more than speed limit, but since it was near the peak of the media induced streetracing issue, the officer in Hope explained that it was considered roadracing when you have 2 or more cars. And since we had over half a dozen cars travelling together, he came to the conclusion that it was roadracing.

Originally posted by bender were they really racing?
so if a bunch of us i-club guys decided drive up to whistler, doing say 20k over the speed limit, it would be street racing

yup....that's how they are going to control us....seriously not over 120km/h on sea to sky isn't that fast....yup they speeded and they deserve speeding tickets....but $460 and get their car towed as well as licence suspended....

that wouldn't make any sense to me....

Tora: what is the "usual" speed limit on sea to sky? i think is about 80 on most area? (forget about corners or curves, those that they recommand u to slow down)

Yup, 80km/hr almost the whole way but 90 km/hr from Alice Lake to just before the really tight canyon road.

120km/hr may not seem that fast but it is not safe driving (that is 40 over the limit). Think about it this way. If you come around the corner at 120km/hr and there is a deer, a stopped car, a rock slide, a cyclist (of course not at night) or an accident do you really think you could stop for it? Doubt it.